The generation of coherent dynamics due to noise in an activator-inhibitor system describing bistable neural dynamics is investigated. We show that coherence can be induced in deterministically asymmetric regimes via symmetry restoration by multiplicative noise, together with the action of additive noise which induces jumps between the two stable steady states. The phenomenon is thus doubly stochastic, because both noise sources are necessary. This effect can be understood analytically in the frame of a small-noise expansion and is confirmed experimentally in a nonlinear electronic circuit. Finally, we show that spatial coupling enhances this coherent behavior in a form of system-size coherence resonance.

• Received 13 July 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.030601